공포 스릴러 영화에 나타난 선악과 신성의 문제

Abstract

The horror thriller depicts the world of perversion and violation centering on a lunatic murderer. This depiction gives a form to otherness, which is a threat to the order of community, while ceremonially dissolves anxiety and fear created by otherness. The horror thriller provides a shiver that goes beyond signification and equally narrates the question of evil in one way or the other. This method of narration is interesting to note in that it advocates how the horror thriller looks at and respond to evil. The horror thriller that simply replaces evil in reality with the realm of divinity ends up either deviating or mystifying the question of evil. Each horror thriller mentioned in this paper, however, overcomes the aforementioned limit in its own way. The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal separate evil in reality and the realm of moral evil from the realm of mythical divinity. One way to do so is to set a weak psychopath/murderer or a criminal with a grudge plotting on a scheme against Hannibal Lector, a mythical monster that feeds on human flesh. The two movies on one hand stress the moral obligation to fight against evil in reality while on the other hand, by using the realm of divinity which overthrows the dichotomy of good and evil, make viewers to think about the ethical attitude that confronts otherness. The vague relation between Clarice and Hannibal presents other ways of communication with otherness—going beyond the approaches to either tame otherness by identifying oneself with the strange, fearful, and monster-like ‘the others’ or reject otherness by diabolizing it. The Saw series overlaps Jigsaw, an incarnation of crime and evil, with an image of Christian God thereby dealing with the question of evil as a theme in a very controversial way. Absolute otherness bearing the meaning of unknown will of God is experienced in a form of horrific violence, and the persistent process of questioning and refuting mysterious divinity leads to religious and metaphysical study of evil. Basically, this study can be summarized as ‘what is the origin of pain and evil prevalent in this world and who is responsible?’ By repeatedly asking questions that are impossible to answer, the Saw series makes a suspense-filled approach to combine evil in reality with transcendental divinity.